Some billionaires have paid a fortune to go to the International Space Station. Now they complain that they had to work too much

The era of space tourism in April reached a new stage: It was launched Axiom 1 mission which has a crew of four It will be a few days On the International Space Station. Three of these crew members are billionaires whose “boarding passes” were too expensive. If you thought everything would be scenic and float through the rooms of the International Space Station, you were in for a surprise.

Hello, I paid $55 million. Larry Connor, Eitan Stipe and Mark Bathy (pictured, with HoloLens inside the International Space Station) are the three lucky billionaires who got to take part in this space mission. All of them paid this amount to be part of this flight whose purpose was to take them to the International Space Station and to be there for eight nights, although the period was eventually extended to 15 days due to unfavorable weather for return.

Fun trip, nothing. Michael Lopez Alegria, Ax-1 mission commander, to explain That “his schedule was very challenging, especially early in the assignment. The pace was hectic at first.” It is true that the crew knew that they would have to do various experiments during their stay on the International Space Station, but they may have imagined that with what they paid for the ticket, the pace would be smooth and tolerable. None of that.

Experiences and more experiences. “We were very aggressive in planning, especially the first two days,” explained Larry Connor, a crew member. He gave the example of an experiment that was supposed to take two and a half hours to complete according to pre-flight training: they ended up taking five hours to do it.

please help. The four NASA/ESA astronauts who were already on the International Space Station aided the Axiom 1 mission – Lopez Alegria had nothing but praise for them – but their work schedule was affected. “It appears that the arrival of the Axiom crew has had a greater than expected impact on the daily workload of the professional crew on the International Space Station,” NASA’s Susan Helms explained at a later meeting.

Axiom will ease the pace in the future. The burden of these space tourists has been well noted by those in charge of Axiom. Michael Suffredini, President and CEO of Axiom Space, explained that there have been “lessons learned” from conversations with NASA and SpaceX, and that “over time, we will reduce what the crew has to do.” The company is already preparing to launch a second crew: it has sold three seats, including one for an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates.

for longer. One option to relax the rhythm is to extend stays. López-Alegría realized that it “was a blessing to have that extra time” when the stay was extended due to those unfavorable conditions for a return. “I think we were so focused on research and outreach for the first 8 or 10 days in orbit that we needed extra time to complete the experiment by making time to look out the window and connect with friends and family and just enjoy the feeling.”